Все о мне!

     Hello, my name is Anna! Growing up in a different country always adds a different perspective, the cultural difference is obviously the most simple to recognize. Moscow is a beautiful place with a fast paced life that does not wait for anyone. The checkout clerks at grocery stores do not smile and ask how you are nor does anyone offer to carry your bags, unless they plan to steal them. However people are also honest with you, no one "beats around the bush". The fruits and vegetables are always fresh and canned food is unheard of. One of the more peculiar discoveries of my residing in America is the large love of peanuts  that Americans share. Peanut butter, peanut brittle, just regular plain peanuts, recess pieces, the list goes on and on! Strange how a population can love one little nut so much.
      This summer I have had the pleasure of occupying my days with an occupation at Piner's Nursing Home. Considering the extreme generation gap, listening to their childhood and adult lives was wildly fascinating. Though they know of all of the new technological advances only a couple of the residents actually own a computer. Their knowledge of the internet database posed for a mutually shared laugh when various questions popped up during regular conversation such as, the best techniques to crack a coconut. There is a surprising amount of challenges that need to be overcome when one is wheelchair bound. Naturally the range of mobility and daily tasks is limited but often the question,  one cannot answer by anything but experience, floated around, what it is like to actually sit in one chair all day, not in your own home, but in a skilled nursing facility. While some residents have family or friends that regularly visit and bring small slices of home with them to share, others are abandoned with only staff and other residents to interact with. Life is brought into a narrow perspective, treasure your friends and family because as the year race you too may end up wheelchair bound.
      Another large part of my life and summer has been working on my relationship with God. Getting together on Friday nights with our youth group has been a blast, playing ultimate frisbee and sharing testimonies has made for a satisfying summer. Being a teacher of the kindergarten sabbath school class has also been a long time passion of mine. Watching the little ones learn the new songs and love the new room decorations that change on the quarterly basis is fulfilling. Interacting with them and listening to their stories of their adventures never gets old. Their undeveloped minds absorb an overwhelming amount of information in a microscopic amount of time. Between working at a nursing home and volunteering with the kids at my church the commonality of the brain function from when you enter this work and from when you leave it has been etched into my mind. You come into this world in diapers and leave it often having to wear "adult liners".